The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
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The Autopsy of Jane Doe marks Norwegian director Andre Ovredal's follow up to 2010's Trollhunter, which is probably one of my favorite found footage movies and that's saying a lot since I really dislike the found footage subgenre. With the director's latest venture we focus on a small family owned mortuary run by a man named "Tommy Tilden" (Brian Cox) and his son "Austin" (Emile Hirsch), both of whom are forced to work extra hours due to the body of a "Jane Doe" (an unidentified female) turning up in a bizarre crime scene involving several more dead bodies.
The mysterious corpse becomes more baffling the further they exam her, as the more they uncover, the more it seems like this Jane Doe wasn't (or isn't) a normal girl. That fact becomes more apparent when strange things begin to occur in the mortuary, eventually leading the Father-Son duo to conclude that something dark and supernatural may be afoot and they need to figure out what exactly killed the girl before they find themselves the next victims.
The first half of the movie is fairly slow, but incredibly intriguing, specifically when they exam the Jane Doe corpse and we learn as the characters do. It's pretty damn interesting, especially if you're not really familiar with the examination process. Once we get into the second half it turns into more of a supernatural horror flick, essentially changing what was more of a crime mystery into more familiar creepy territory. While the movie did offer some great atmosphere and some genuinely creepy scenes, it does fall victim to some standard genre tropes, primarily an hour in when certain things are revealed.
Though I can look passed some of the film's flaws since I found them to be very few and far between, and the story itself actually turned out to be not only interesting, but fairly creative. I don't think I've seen a tale quite like this before, so it's nice to see that there's still a bit of originality left in the genre. However, the climax was a bit on the predictable side for seasoned horror fans.
Ignoring the tropes and some of the predictability, the film offers an intriguing and creative premise along with some genuinely well done and creepy sequences. It's definitely worth checking out as long as you don't mind a fairly slow start.